Obtaining neighbor cell control channel resources in unlicensed bands

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments herein provide techniques for indication of a starting frequency of a control resource set (CORESET). In embodiments, two modes for determining the starting frequency are provided. An access node (e.g., next generation Node B (gNB)) may send an indication to a user equipment (UE) to indicate which mode to use (e.g., in a payload of a physical broadcast channel (PBCH)). Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/911,912, which was filed Oct. 7, 2019; U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/923,823, which was filed Oct. 21,2019; the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments relate generally to the technical field of wirelesscommunications.

BACKGROUND

A user equipment (UE) may be requested by the network to perform cellglobal identify (CGI) measurement and reporting. In this process, UE mayneed to detect synchronization signal of neighbor target cells, which isrequested to perform CGI measurement, and receive and decode systembroadcast information.

In New Radio (NR), in order to decode system broadcast information, UEneeds to decode physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) that containsthe scheduling information of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)that contains system broadcast information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitatethis description, like reference numerals designate like structuralelements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by wayof limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of cell global identity (CGI) measurementin accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a first method of obtaining CORESET #0 startingfrequency position, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an of CGI measurement in non-coexistence scenarios,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a second method of obtaining CORESET #0 startingfrequency position, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) informationpayload, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of offset values relative to the referenceSSB candidate positions, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example architecture of a system of a network, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment in accordancewith various embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a computer platform in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry and radiofront end modules in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

FIG. 12 illustrates a process of a gNB in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 13 illustrates a process of a UE in accordance with variousembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identifythe same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposesof explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth suchas particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects ofvarious embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the variousaspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examplesthat depart from these specific details. In certain instances,descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted soas not to obscure the description of the various embodiments withunnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase“A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

UE may be requested by the network to perform cell global identify (CGI)measurement and reporting. In this process, UE may need to detectsynchronization signal of neighbor target cells, which is requested toperform CGI measurement, and receive and decode system broadcastinformation.

In NR, in order to decode system broadcast information, UE needs todecode physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) that contains thescheduling information of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) thatcontains system broadcast information.

Reception of PDCCH requires the UE to know the information of thecontrol resource set (CORESET) within the system bandwidth and thesearch space information. The CORESET information is obtained fromsynchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH or SSB).CORESET is defined by one or more set of frequency resources that may beused for PDCCH transmission as well as the OFDM number of symbol thatwould span in time domain by single PDCCH. Search space informationdetermines the subset of the resources that would be used by PDCCHwithin the CORESET and time domain monitoring instances.

Therefore, in order for the UE to perform CGI measurement UE needs tofirst understand the CORESET information of neighbor target cell (seeFIG. 1 ).

NR operation in licensed band has various channel placement in frequencyoptions, and various SS/PBCH placement in frequency options. The CORESETinformation signaled in SS/PBCH is indicated by providing a resourceblock (RB) offset between starting RB of the CORESET and starting RB ofthe SS/PBCH. The relative position in frequency of CORESET with respectto SS/PBCH.

Rel-15 NR specification, supports signaling of SSB to CORESET #0 offsetusing first 4 bits of PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 RRC parameter. This allowsmaximum of 16 entries to be signaled to indicate a combination of spanof the CORESET (e.g., number of OFDM symbols for PDCCH), bandwidth ofthe CORESET, and SSB to CORESET #0 RB offset.

Alternatively, for cells that are transmitting system broadcastinformation such as SIB1 and is utilizing SSB that is transmitted on anoff-raster frequency (e.g., not part of reference SSB frequencies), theCORESET #0 frequency location can be implicitly derived from addition ofSSB to CORESET #0 RB offset indicated in the SSB and the frequency gapbetween SSB that is transmitted on an off-raster frequency and thereference SSB frequency for the cell.

Number of SSB to CORESET #0 offset that could be indicated was limited.In the Rel-15 NR specification, less than 5 offset values for a givenCORESET bandwidth, SSB and CORESET #0 subcarrier spacing is supported.

In case of non-coexistence cases where 20 MHz channel bandwidth cellsmay be defined in overlapping manner, implicit derivation usingcombination of SSB to CORESET #0 offset indication and SSB and thefrequency gap between SSB that is transmitted on an off-raster frequencyand the reference SSB frequency for the cell does not work at all.

Various embodiments described herein may allow higher degree ofconfiguration and/or allow support of unlicensed cells innon-coexistence cases and/or coexistence cases.

Embodiments include to send indication of the payload of PBCH thatdifferentiates two modes of indicating frequency domain placement ofCORESET. The first mode utilizes a combination of the RB offsetsignaling and frequency gap between the SS/PBCH that indication wasconveyed and reference SS/PBCH frequency for a given frequency range.The second mode utilizes RB offset signaling.

The support of two modes, as described herein, will allow to supportvarious NR deployment scenarios in unlicensed spectrum.

Method 1 of CORESET #0 Indication for SSB

In method 1, it is assumed that there is only 1 SSB raster entry per 20MHz channel boundary, where the 20 MHz channel boundary are frequencyranges of units of 20 MHz that divides up the unlicensed spectrum intousable frequency chunks. Additionally, it is assumed that cells thatoperate with specific bandwidth, e.g. 20 MHz, may not partially overlap.For example, within the 20 MHz channel boundary, there would be only 1frequency position that cells operating 20 MHz can fit in. Examples of20 MHz channel boundaries are provided by start and end frequencies inTable 1.

TABLE 1 UNII Center Fre- Start Fre- End Fre- Band quency [kHz] quency[kHz] quency [kHz] 1 5160000 5060000 5260000 1 5180000 5080000 5280000 15200000 5100000 5300000 1 5220000 5120000 5320000 1 5240000 51400005340000 1 5260000 5160000 5360000 1 5280000 5180000 5380000 1 53000005200000 5400000 1 5320000 5220000 5420000 1 5340000 5240000 5440000 25480000 5380000 5580000 2 5500000 5400000 5600000 2 5520000 54200005620000 2 5540000 5440000 5640000 2 5560000 5460000 5660000 2 55800005480000 5680000 2 5600000 5500000 5700000 2 5620000 5520000 5720000 25640000 5540000 5740000 2 5660000 5560000 5760000 2 5680000 55800005780000 2 5700000 5600000 5800000 2 5720000 5620000 5820000 3 57450005645000 5845000 3 5765000 5665000 5865000 3 5785000 5685000 5885000 35805000 5705000 5905000 3 5825000 5725000 5925000 3 5845000 57450005945000 3 5865000 5765000 5965000 3 5885000 5785000 5985000 3 59050005805000 6005000

Under these assumptions, CORESET #0 frequency starting point isdetermined by the SSB frequency starting point, and the SSB-CORESET #0offset indication carried by SSB. More specifically, the frequencystarting point for CORESET #0 is determined by SSB-CORESET #0 offsetindication plus offset between reference SSB frequency position andcurrent detected SSB frequency position, which carries the SSB-CORESET#0 offset indication. The reference SSB frequency positions are referredhere as on-raster SSB. The reference SSB frequency positions are thesingle predefined SSB frequency position within the 20 MHz channelboundary for each channel chunk in unlicensed spectrum.

If SSB that is not on-raster (e.g. not transmitted on a reference SSBfrequency position), the offset between reference SSB frequency positionand current detected SSB frequency position will be an non-zero value.If SSB is on-raster, then the offset between reference SSB frequencyposition and current detected SSB frequency position will be zero. Anillustration of method of obtaining CORESET #0 starting frequencyposition based on method 1 is shown in FIG. 2 .

In FIG. 2 , the top figure represents an example of either serving cellthat has SSB on raster or a hypothetical reference cell that would existif SSB is on raster. The Bottom figure represents the target neighborcell that UE needs to perform CGI measurement. In order for the UE todecode the system broadcast information, it first needs to obtain theCORESET #0 information from the detected SSB, which is off rasterpoints. The determination of the frequency position of CORESET #0 isdone by adding the signaled SSB-CORESET #0 offset value and offsetbetween the detected SSB and reference SSB for the 20 MHz channel.

In method 1, the UE must (first) determine the frequency range of the 20MHz channel boundary, (second) find the reference SSB raster frequencywithin the frequency range of the 20 MHz channel boundary, (third)derive the frequency gap between the target SSB and the reference SSBfrequency and use the frequency gap in the determination of thefrequency position of the CORESET #0.

In general determination of the frequency range of the 20 MHz channelboundary could be difficult depending on how the 20 MHz channel boundaryis defined and placement of the reference SSB frequencies.

An alternative method to avoid the determination of the frequencyposition and have the UE be able to derive the frequency gap betweentarget SSB frequency and reference SSB frequency could be done withassistance information from the gNB.

In the variation of the method 1, denoted as method 1A, UE determinesthe reference SSB frequency as either (approach 1) frequency among thelist of SSB raster entries that is closest (i.e. nearest) to the targetSSB frequency and smaller of equal to the target SSB frequency, or(approach 2) frequency among the list of SSB raster entries that isclosest (i.e. nearest) to the target SSB frequency and larger of equalto the target SSB frequency. The gNB may indicate which approach thereference SSB frequency is determined using assistance information.

For example, assume that the set of reference SSB entries are {5155680,5175840, 5196000, 5214720, 5234880, 5255040, 5275200, 5295360, 5315520,5335680, 5475360, 5495520, 5515680, 5535840, 5556000, 5574720, 5594880,5615040, 5635200, 5655360, 5675520, 5695680, 5715840, 5740320, 5760480,5780640, 5800800, 5820960, 5839680, 5859840, 5880000, 5900160} kHz.

If the target SSB frequency is 526500 kHz, using approach 1, thereference SSB frequency would be 5255050 kHz and using approach 2, thereference SSB frequency would be 5275200 kHz.

The assistance information may be an explicit indication that isindicated by higher layers. One example is as part of measurement objectconfiguration used to configure the UE to perform monitoring of the CGIreporting.

The assistance information may be an explicit indication that isindicated in MIB.

The assistance information may be an implicit indication that isindicated in MIB. For example, depending on the set of entries ofSSB-CORESET #0 offset is indicated in the MIB, UE will use approach 1 or2. Some examples of SSB-CORESET #0 offset implicitly indicating CORESETfrequency determination approach 1 or 2 is shown in Table 2 and Table 3.In Table 2, index {0,1,2,3} implicitly indicate to the UE that approach1 should be used to determine the CORESET frequency location and index{4,5,6,7} implicitly indicate to the UE that approach 2 should be usedto determine the CORESET frequency location.

TABLE 2 SS/PBCH block Number Number and CORESET of of CORESETmultiplexing RBs Symbols Offset determination Index pattern N_(RB)^(CORESET) N_(symb) ^(CORESET) (RBs) Approach  0 1 48 1 0 1  1 1 48 1 11  2 1 48 2 0 1  3 1 48 2 1 1  4 1 48 1 0 2  5 1 48 1 1 2  6 1 48 2 0 2 7 1 48 2 1 2  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15

TABLE 3 SS/PBCH block Number Number and CORESET of of CORESETmultiplexing RBs Symbols Offset determination Index pattern N_(RB)^(CORESET) N_(symb) ^(CORESET) (RBs) Approach  0 1 48 1 −1 1  1 1 48 1 01  2 1 48 1 1 1  3 1 48 2 1 1  4 1 48 2 0 1  5 1 48 2 1 1  6 1 48 1 −1 1 7 1 48 1 0 2  8 1 48 1 1 2  9 1 48 2 −1 2 10 1 48 2 0 2 11 1 48 2 1 212 13 14 15

One of the issues with method 1 approach to obtaining CORESET #0frequency location is that it does not work when assumptions of cellbandwidth placement is not met. For example, if system bandwidth of acell can be placed in any frequency location, it can be problematic formethod 1 approach. Such situations may occur in non-coexistencescenarios, where NR cells do not necessarily need to align thetransmission bandwidth with other radio systems, such as 802.11 systems.

An example is illustrated in FIG. 3 . In FIG. 3 , the neighbor targetcell for CGI measurement is in the bottom right side of the Figure. Thesystem bandwidth of the target cell for CGI measurement is not confinedto 20 MHz channel boundary and is across the 20 MHz channel chunks. Thetarget cell is transmitting SSB on an off raster position. FIG. 3 alsoshows other hypothetical cells (bottom right and top) that eitherconfined to the 20 MHz channel boundary or is not confined to the 20 MHzchannel boundary but both are transmitting SSB on raster. In suchscenario, it may not be possible use method 1 to obtain the CORESET #0frequency position location since the offset between SSB off raster andreference SSB (e.g. on raster) has no relevance to the CORESET #0frequency position for the cell that is transmitting SSB off rasterpoint.

To overcome this issue, method 2 approach is provided and describedbelow.

Method 2 of CORESET #0 Indication for SSB

In method 2 the CORESET #0 position is directly indicated by signalingin the SSB. FIG. 4 shows an illustration of the method 2 approach. TheSSB may carry signaling for offset that directly indicates the RB offsetbetween start of CORESET #0 frequency position and start of SSBfrequency position.

The information payload of PBCH of SSB consists of 4 bits of SFN, 1 bitof half radio frame indicator, 3 bits of SSB index (or 1 bit of k_ssbMSB and 2 bits of reserved field), 1 bit choice indication for BCHmessage type, and master information block (MIB). FIG. 5 shows anillustration of the PBCH information payload.

The MIB consists of systemFrameNumber, subCarrierSpacingCommon,ssb-SubcarrierOffset (i.e. k_ssb signaling), dmrs-TypeA-Position,pdcch-ConfigSIB1, cellBarred, intraFreqReselection, and spare fields.More detailed ASN.1 description of the MIB and broadcast channeldescription is shown below.

BCCH-BCH-Message ::= SEQUENCE {  message BCCH-BCH-MessageType }BCCH-BCH-MessageType ::= CHOICE {  mib MIB,  messageClassExtensionSEQUENCE { } } MIB ::= SEQUENCE {  systemFrameNumber BIT STRING (SIZE(6)),  subCarrierSpacingCommon ENUMERATED {scs15or60, scs30or120}, ssb-SubcarrierOffset INTEGER (0..15),  dmrs-TypeA-Position ENUMERATED{pos2, pos3},  pdcch-ConfigSIB1 PDCCH-ConfigSIB1,  cellBarred ENUMERATED{barred, notBarred},  intraFreqReselection ENUMERATED {allowed,notAllowed},  spare BIT STRING (SIZE (1))   }

The RB offset signaling can be conducted using PDCCH-ConfigSIB1parameter in MIB. More specifically, the first 4 bits of thePDCCH-ConfigSIB1 may indicate 1 entry among 16 possible entry thatindicate a combination of SSB to CORESET #0 RB offset, number of OFDMsymbol for PDCCH that are transmitted in CORESET #0, and frequencybandwidth of CORESET #0.

For example of the first 4 bits of the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 may indicateparameters entries in Table 2. The offset in Table 4 is respect to the30 kHz subcarrier spacing of the CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set, anddefined as the frequency difference in units of RB in 30 kHz subcarrierspacing from the smallest RB index of the CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSSset to the smallest RB index of the common RB overlapping with the firstRB of the corresponding SS/PBCH block. Assuming an 50 RB systembandwidth using 30 kHz subcarrier spacing, offset values larger than 20would be needed to support reference SSB placement in the right side ofthe 20 MHz channel, and offset values smaller than 20 would be need tosupport reference SSB placement in the left side of the 20 MHz channel.FIG. 6 shows an example of offset values relative to the reference SSBcandidate positions.

TABLE 4 SS/PBCH block Number Number and CORESET of of multiplexing RBsSymbols Offset Index pattern N_(RB) ^(CORESET) N_(symb) ^(CORESET) (RBs) 0 1 48 1 0  1 1 48 1 1  2 1 48 1 2  3 1 48 1 3  4 1 48 1 27  5 1 48 128  6 1 48 1 29  7 1 48 1 30  8 1 48 2 0  9 1 48 2 1 10 1 48 2 2 11 1 482 3 12 1 48 2 27 13 1 48 2 28 14 1 48 2 29 15 1 48 2 30

Alternatively, if ssb-SubcarrierOffset (e.g., k_ssb) signaling is notrequired in unlicensed bands, the field can be repurposed to explicitlyindicate SSB to CORESET #0 RB offset. The 4 bits would be used toexplicitly indicate the frequency difference in units of RB in 30 kHzsubcarrier spacing from the smallest RB index of the 30 kHz subcarrierspacing CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set to the smallest RB index of thecommon RB overlapping with the first RB of the corresponding SS/PBCHblock.

Alternatively, offset indication in PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 and offsetindication in repurposed ssb-SubcarrierOffset can be used together,where the UE determines the final offset between SSB and CORESET #0 byadding the two indicated offset together.

For example, an offset indicated in PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 may indicate valueof {0,1,2,3} and offset indicated in repurposed ssb-SubcarrierOffset mayindicate value of {0,4,8,12, 16,20,24,28}. The final offset could be sumof the two indicated values, which allows gNB to indicate any finaloffset value ranging from 0 to 31.

In another example, offset indicated in PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 may indicatevalue of {0,1,2,3, 28,29,30,31} and offset indicated in repurposedssb-SubcarrierOffset may indicate value of {0,4,8,12} or {0, −4, −8,−12} depending on whether offset indicated in PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 is{0,1,2,3} or {28,29,30,31}, respectively. The final offset could be sumof the two indicated values, which allows gNB to indicate any finaloffset value ranging from 0 to 31.

Support of Both Method 1 and 2 of CORESET #0 Indication for SSB

It may be possible to support both method 1 and 2 approach forindicating CORESET #0 location in SSB. This can be done by 1 bitsignaling in SSB. One example of how this could be done is byrepurposing subCarrierSpacingCommon parameter in the MIB. Instead usingthe subCarrierSpacingCommon parameter to indicate the subcarrier spacingof the CORESET #0, it may be assumed that for unlicensed operation in 5and 6 GHz frequency bands, 30 kHz is always used for CORESET #0 andsubCarrierSpacingCommon parameter indicates whether CORESET #0 locationshould be determined using method 1 or 2 approach.

Note on Start Frequency

In the disclosure described above the start frequency of SSB may referto the first subcarrier frequency position of 20 PRB SSB, or it mayrefer to the first subcarrier of the common resource block that overlapswith 20 PRB SSB.

Systems and Implementations

FIG. 7 illustrates an example architecture of a system 700 of a network,in accordance with various embodiments. The following description isprovided for an example system 700 that operates in conjunction with theLTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPPtechnical specifications. However, the example embodiments are notlimited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to othernetworks that benefit from the principles described herein, such asfuture 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

As shown by FIG. 7 , the system 700 includes UE 701 a and UE 701 b(collectively referred to as “UEs 701” or “UE 701”). In this example,UEs 701 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreenmobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks),but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such asconsumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, featurephones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptopcomputers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE)devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices,onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobiledata terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS),electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine controlmodules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules,engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, MTCdevices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 701 may be IoT UEs, which maycomprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applicationsutilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologiessuch as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device viaa PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks.The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange ofdata. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which mayinclude uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within theInternet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs mayexecute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, statusupdates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 701 may be configured to connect, for example, communicativelycouple, with an or RAN 710. In embodiments, the RAN 710 may be an NG RANor a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. Asused herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 710 thatoperates in an NR or 5G system 700, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the likemay refer to a RAN 710 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 700. The UEs701 utilize connections (or channels) 703 and 704, respectively, each ofwhich comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussedin further detail below).

In this example, the connections 703 and 704 are illustrated as an airinterface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent withcellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMAnetwork protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the othercommunications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 701may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 705. TheProSe interface 705 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface705 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but notlimited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

The UE 701 b is shown to be configured to access an AP 706 (alsoreferred to as “WLAN node 706,” “WLAN 706,” “WLAN Termination 706,” “WT706” or the like) via connection 707. The connection 707 can comprise alocal wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 706 would comprise a wireless fidelity(Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP 706 is shown to be connected tothe Internet without connecting to the core network of the wirelesssystem (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, theUE 701 b, RAN 710, and AP 706 may be configured to utilize LWA operationand/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 701 b inRRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node 711 a-b to utilize radioresources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 701 b usingWLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 707) via IPsec protocol tunnelingto authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over theconnection 707. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entiretyof original IP packets and adding a new packet header, therebyprotecting the original header of the IP packets.

The RAN 710 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 711 a and 711b (collectively referred to as “RAN nodes 711” or “RAN node 711”) thatenable the connections 703 and 704. As used herein, the terms “accessnode,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that providesthe radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity betweena network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred toas BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth,and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) orsatellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., acell). As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to aRAN node 711 that operates in an NR or 5G system 700 (for example, agNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node711 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 700 (e.g., an eNB). Accordingto various embodiments, the RAN nodes 711 may be implemented as one ormore of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station,and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocellsor other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller usercapacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes 711 may beimplemented as one or more software entities running on server computersas part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/ora virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN orvBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split whereinRRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocolentities are operated by individual RAN nodes 711; a MAC/PHY splitwherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUPand the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 711; or a “lowerPHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of thePHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHYlayer are operated by individual RAN nodes 711. This virtualizedframework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes 711 toperform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, anindividual RAN node 711 may represent individual gNB-DUs that areconnected to a gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (not shown by FIG. 7). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remoteradio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., FIG. 8 ), and the gNB-CU may beoperated by a server that is located in the RAN 710 (not shown) or by aserver pool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally oralternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 711 may be next generationeNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane andcontrol plane protocol terminations toward the UEs 701, and areconnected to a 5GC via an NG interface (discussed infra).

In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes 711 may be or act as RSUs.The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportationinfrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may beimplemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relativelystationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referredto as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may bereferred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB maybe referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSUis a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located ona roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 701(vUEs 701). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry tostore intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well asapplications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular andpedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct ShortRange Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latencycommunications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance,traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSUmay operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned lowlatency communications, as well as other cellular communicationsservices. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fihotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or morecellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Thecomputing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry ofthe RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoorinstallation, and may include a network interface controller to providea wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controllerand/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 711 can terminate the air interface protocol andcan be the first point of contact for the UEs 701. In some embodiments,any of the RAN nodes 711 can fulfill various logical functions for theRAN 710 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC)functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamicradio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobilitymanagement.

In embodiments, the UEs 701 can be configured to communicate using OFDMcommunication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 711over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with variouscommunication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelinkcommunications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited inthis respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonalsubcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 711 to the UEs 701, while uplinktransmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be atime-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resourcegrid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Sucha time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDMsystems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Eachcolumn and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symboland one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource gridin the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. Thesmallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resourceelement. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, whichdescribe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements.Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in thefrequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resourcesthat currently can be allocated. There are several different physicaldownlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, the UEs 701 and the RAN nodes 711communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over alicensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/or the“licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to asthe “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensedspectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range ofapproximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensedspectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs 701 and the RAN nodes 711may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In theseimplementations, the UEs 701 and the RAN nodes 711 may perform one ormore known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operationsin order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensedspectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting inthe unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may beperformed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs 701 RAN nodes711, etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency)and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specificchannel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensingoperation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine thepresence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determineif a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allowscellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in theunlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensingRF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time andcomparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based onIEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel accessmechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobilestation (MS) such as UE 701, AP 706, or the like) intends to transmit,the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, abackoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where morethan one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the sametime. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomlywithin the CWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence ofcollision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds.The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA ofWLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or ULtransmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions,respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable inlength between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximumvalues for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAAtransmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWSand a MCOT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based ongovernmental regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advancedsystems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC mayhave a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of fiveCCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can bedifferent for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lowerthan the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCscan have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, thenumber of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the samefor DL and UL.

CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs.The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCson different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. Aprimary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, andmay handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells arereferred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC forboth UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, whilechanging the PCC may require the UE 701 to undergo a handover. In LAA,eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensedspectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assistedby a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configuredwith more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on theconfigured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positionswithin a same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 701.The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resourceallocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It mayalso inform the UEs 701 about the transport format, resource allocation,and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically,downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resourceblocks to the UE 701 b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RANnodes 711 based on channel quality information fed back from any of theUEs 701. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on thePDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 701.

The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before beingmapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may firstbe organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using asub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmittedusing one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to ninesets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four QuadraturePhase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCHcan be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of theDCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCHformats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregationlevel, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that usesPDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may betransmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE maycorrespond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as anEREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 711 may be configured to communicate with one another viainterface 712. In embodiments where the system 700 is an LTE system(e.g., when CN 720 is an EPC), the interface 712 may be an X2 interface712. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 711(e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC 720, and/orbetween two eNBs connecting to EPC 720. In some implementations, the X2interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow controlmechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, andmay be used to communicate information about the delivery of user databetween eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence numberinformation for user data transferred from a MeNB to an SeNB;information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE701 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were notdelivered to a UE 701; information about a current minimum desiredbuffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and thelike. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality,including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user planetransport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well asinter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 700 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN720 is an 5GC), the interface 712 may be an Xn interface 712. The Xninterface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 711 (e.g., two ormore gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 720, between a RAN node 711(e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 720 and an eNB, and/or between two eNBsconnecting to 5GC 720. In some implementations, the Xn interface mayinclude an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C)interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user planePDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality.The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality,functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 701in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) including functionality tomanage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes711. The mobility support may include context transfer from an old(source) serving RAN node 711 to new (target) serving RAN node 711; andcontrol of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node 711to new (target) serving RAN node 711. A protocol stack of the Xn-U mayinclude a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP)transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) tocarry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include anapplication layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn ApplicationProtocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP.The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteeddelivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer,point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. Inother implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocolstack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control planeprotocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The RAN 710 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network inthis embodiment, core network (CN) 720. The CN 720 may comprise aplurality of network elements 722, which are configured to offer variousdata and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g.,users of UEs 701) who are connected to the CN 720 via the RAN 710. Thecomponents of the CN 720 may be implemented in one physical node orseparate physical nodes including components to read and executeinstructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g.,a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments,NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-describednetwork node functions via executable instructions stored in one or morecomputer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). Alogical instantiation of the CN 720 may be referred to as a networkslice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 720 may bereferred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures andinfrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions,alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resourcescomprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storagehardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used toexecute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

Generally, the application server 730 may be an element offeringapplications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g.,UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 730can also be configured to support one or more communication services(e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, socialnetworking services, etc.) for the UEs 701 via the EPC 720.

In embodiments, the CN 720 may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC 720” or thelike), and the RAN 710 may be connected with the CN 720 via an NGinterface 713. In embodiments, the NG interface 713 may be split intotwo parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 714, which carries trafficdata between the RAN nodes 711 and a UPF, and the S1 control plane(NG-C) interface 715, which is a signaling interface between the RANnodes 711 and AMFs.

In embodiments, the CN 720 may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC 720” orthe like), while in other embodiments, the CN 720 may be an EPC). WhereCN 720 is an EPC (referred to as “EPC 720” or the like), the RAN 710 maybe connected with the CN 720 via an S1 interface 713. In embodiments,the S1 interface 713 may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane(S1-U) interface 714, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes711 and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface 715, which is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 711 and MMES.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 800 inaccordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 800(or “system 800”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RANnode such as the RAN nodes 711 and/or AP 706 shown and describedpreviously, application server(s) 730, and/or any other element/devicediscussed herein. In other examples, the system 800 could be implementedin or by a UE.

The system 800 includes application circuitry 805, baseband circuitry810, one or more radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815, memory circuitry820, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 825, power teecircuitry 830, network controller circuitry 835, network interfaceconnector 840, satellite positioning circuitry 845, and user interface850. In some embodiments, the device 800 may include additional elementssuch as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, orinput/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the componentsdescribed below may be included in more than one device. For example,said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device forCRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations.

Application circuitry 805 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers,serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serialinterface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters includinginterval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO),memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC)or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile IndustryProcessor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG)test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 805 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 800. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors,one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISCMachine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing(CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one ormore FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or moremicroprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. Insome embodiments, the application circuitry 805 may comprise, or may be,a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to thevarious embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of applicationcircuitry 805 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon®processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s),Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-basedprocessor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-Afamily of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium™, Inc.; aMIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS WarriorP-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 800may not utilize application circuitry 805, and instead may include aspecial-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from anEPC or 5GC, for example.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 805 may include oneor more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors,programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardwareaccelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deeplearning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processingdevices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such asfield-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logicdevices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs(HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like;programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, thecircuitry of application circuitry 805 may comprise logic blocks orlogic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmedto perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods,functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In suchembodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 805 may includememory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM),anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc.in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 810 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10 .

User interface circuitry 850 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the system 800 or peripheralcomponent interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interactionwith the system 800. User interfaces may include, but are not limitedto, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), oneor more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physicalkeyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers orother audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, aheadset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memoryport, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815 may comprise a millimeter wave(mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWaveRFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs mayinclude connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g.,antenna array 1011 of FIG. 10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected tomultiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave andsub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM815, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 820 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate thethree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® andMicron®. Memory circuitry 820 may be implemented as one or more ofsolder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules andplug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 825 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, poweralarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such asa battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detectone or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage)conditions. The power tee circuitry 830 may provide for electrical powerdrawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the infrastructure equipment 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 835 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet,Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching(MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may beprovided to/from the infrastructure equipment 800 via network interfaceconnector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical(commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless.The network controller circuitry 835 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of theaforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the networkcontroller circuitry 835 may include multiple controllers to provideconnectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 includes circuitry to receive and decodesignals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a globalnavigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satelliteconstellations (or GNSS) include United States' Global PositioningSystem (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the EuropeanUnion's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, aregional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigationwith Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integratedby Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 845comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devicessuch as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like tofacilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 845 may include aMicro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) ICthat uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimationwithout GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 845 may also be partof, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 815 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 845 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 805, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes 711,etc.), or the like.

The components shown by FIG. 8 may communicate with one another usinginterface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/orinterconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture(ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI),peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe),or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietarybus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems maybe included, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point to pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a platform 900 (or “device 900”) inaccordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computerplatform 900 may be suitable for use as UEs 701, application servers730, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The platform 900may include any combinations of the components shown in the example. Thecomponents of platform 900 may be implemented as integrated circuits(ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules,logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted inthe computer platform 900, or as components otherwise incorporatedwithin a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of FIG. 9 isintended to show a high level view of components of the computerplatform 900. However, some of the components shown may be omitted,additional components may be present, and different arrangement of thecomponents shown may occur in other implementations.

Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2Cor universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-countersincluding interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory cardcontrollers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces,and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 905 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 900. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one ormore GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, oneor more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or morePLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, amultithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embeddedprocessor, some other known processing element, or any suitablecombination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 805may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller tooperate according to the various embodiments herein.

As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may includean Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, anAtom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another suchprocessor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. Theprocessors of the application circuitry 905 may also be one or more ofAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or AcceleratedProcessing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc.,Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., TexasInstruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such asMIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors;an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARMCortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. Insome implementations, the application circuitry 905 may be a part of asystem on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry 905 and othercomponents are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a singlepackage, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel®Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 905 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmabledevices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices(PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), andthe like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs(PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of applicationcircuitry 905 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and otherinterconnected resources that may be programmed to perform variousfunctions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of thevarious embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitryof application circuitry 905 may include memory cells (e.g., erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory(e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used tostore logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs)and the like.

The baseband circuitry 910 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 910 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10 .

The RFEMs 915 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one ormore sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In someimplementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physicallyseparated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to oneor more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 1011 of FIG.10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. Inalternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functionsmay be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915, which incorporatesboth mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 920 may include any number and type of memorydevices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. Asexamples, the memory circuitry 920 may include one or more of volatilememory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/orsynchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 920 may bedeveloped in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices EngineeringCouncil (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such asLPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 920 may beimplemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits,single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package(Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboardvia a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memorycircuitry 920 may be on-die memory or registers associated with theapplication circuitry 905. To provide for persistent storage ofinformation such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth,memory circuitry 920 may include one or more mass storage devices, whichmay include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard diskdrive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase changememories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. Forexample, the computer platform 900 may incorporate the three-dimensional(3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

Removable memory circuitry 923 may include devices, circuitry,enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portabledata storage devices with the platform 900. These portable data storagedevices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, forexample, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSDcards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, opticaldiscs, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 900 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) thatis used to connect external devices with the platform 900. The externaldevices connected to the platform 900 via the interface circuitryinclude sensor circuitry 921 and electro-mechanical components (EMCs)922, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memorycircuitry 923.

The sensor circuitry 921 include devices, modules, or subsystems whosepurpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send theinformation (sensor data) about the detected events to some other adevice, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, interalia, inertia measurement units (IMUS) comprising accelerometers,gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axisaccelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors;flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors;barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capturedevices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection andranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiationdetector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonictransceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

EMCs 922 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is toenable platform 900 to change its state, position, and/or orientation,or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 922may be configured to generate and send messages/signalling to othercomponents of the platform 900 to indicate a current state of the EMCs922. Examples of the EMCs 922 include one or more power switches, relaysincluding electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays(SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible soundgenerator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, steppermotors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks,and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments,platform 900 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 922 based on oneor more captured events and/or instructions or control signals receivedfrom a service provider and/or various clients.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with positioning circuitry 945. The positioning circuitry945 includes circuitry to receive and decode signalstransmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples ofnavigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States'GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China'sBeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSSaugmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.),or the like. The positioning circuitry 945 comprises various hardwareelements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters,amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTAcommunications) to communicate with components of a positioning network,such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments,the positioning circuitry 945 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses amaster timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSSassistance. The positioning circuitry 945 may also be part of, orinteract with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 915 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 945 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 905, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio basestations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 940. NFCcircuitry 940 is configured to provide contactless, short-rangecommunications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards,wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication betweenNFC circuitry 940 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 900(e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry 940 comprises an NFCcontroller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled withthe NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFCfunctionalities to the NFC circuitry 940 by executing NFC controllerfirmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by theprocessor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmwaremay be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element toemit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag(e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmitstored data to the NFC circuitry 940, or initiate data transfer betweenthe NFC circuitry 940 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphoneor an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform 900.

The driver circuitry 946 may include software and hardware elements thatoperate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform900, attached to the platform 900, or otherwise communicatively coupledwith the platform 900. The driver circuitry 946 may include individualdrivers allowing other components of the platform 900 to interact withor control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be presentwithin, or connected to, the platform 900. For example, driver circuitry946 may include a display driver to control and allow access to adisplay device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to atouchscreen interface of the platform 900, sensor drivers to obtainsensor readings of sensor circuitry 921 and control and allow access tosensor circuitry 921, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of theEMCs 922 and/or control and allow access to the EMCs 922, a cameradriver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device,audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 925 (also referred toas “power management circuitry 925”) may manage power provided tovarious components of the platform 900. In particular, with respect tothe baseband circuitry 910, the PMIC 925 may control power-sourceselection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion.The PMIC 925 may often be included when the platform 900 is capable ofbeing powered by a battery 930, for example, when the device is includedin a UE 701.

In some embodiments, the PMIC 925 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the platform 900. For example, if theplatform 900 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connectedto the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it mayenter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a periodof inactivity. During this state, the platform 900 may power down forbrief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data trafficactivity for an extended period of time, then the platform 900 maytransition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from thenetwork and does not perform operations such as channel qualityfeedback, handover, etc. The platform 900 goes into a very low powerstate and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up tolisten to the network and then powers down again. The platform 900 maynot receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it musttransition back to RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving modemay allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longerthan a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). Duringthis time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and maypower down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a largedelay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

A battery 930 may power the platform 900, although in some examples theplatform 900 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have apower supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 930 may be alithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, analuminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In someimplementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 930 may be atypical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 930 may be a “smart battery,” whichincludes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or batterymonitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform900 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 930. The BMS maybe used to monitor other parameters of the battery 930 to providefailure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state offunction (SoF) of the battery 930. The BMS may communicate theinformation of the battery 930 to the application circuitry 905 or othercomponents of the platform 900. The BMS may also include ananalog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry905 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 930 or the currentflow from the battery 930. The battery parameters may be used todetermine actions that the platform 900 may perform, such astransmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and thelike.

A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid maybe coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 930. In some examples, thepower block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver toobtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in thecomputer platform 900. In these examples, a wireless battery chargingcircuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuitschosen may depend on the size of the battery 930, and thus, the currentrequired. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standardpromulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standardpromulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence chargingstandard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

User interface circuitry 950 includes various input/output (I/O) devicespresent within, or connected to, the platform 900, and includes one ormore user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with theplatform 900 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enableperipheral component interaction with the platform 900. The userinterface circuitry 950 includes input device circuitry and outputdevice circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or morephysical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard,keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset,and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for showing information or otherwise conveyinginformation, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or otherlike information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/orcombinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one ormore simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators(e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs,or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g.,Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays,projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimediaobjects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation ofthe platform 900. The output device circuitry may also include speakersor other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In someembodiments, the sensor circuitry 921 may be used as the input devicecircuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or thelike) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry(e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In anotherexample, NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with anantenna element and a processing device may be included to readelectronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device.Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, anon-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 900 may communicate withone another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, whichmay include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx,PCIe, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or anynumber of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX,for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may beincluded, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 10 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 1010 andradio front end modules (RFEM) 1015 in accordance with variousembodiments. The baseband circuitry 1010 corresponds to the basebandcircuitry 810 and 910 of FIGS. 8 and 9 , respectively. The RFEM 1015corresponds to the RFEM 815 and 915 of FIGS. 8 and 9 , respectively. Asshown, the RFEMs 1015 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1006,front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1008, antenna array 1011 coupledtogether at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 1010 includes circuitry and/or control logicconfigured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio controlfunctions that enable communication with one or more radio networks viathe RF circuitry 1006. The radio control functions may include, but arenot limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radiofrequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulationcircuitry of the baseband circuitry 1010 may include Fast-FourierTransform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demappingfunctionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may include convolution, tail-bitingconvolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulationand encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples andmay include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. Thebaseband circuitry 1010 is configured to process baseband signalsreceived from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006 and togenerate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to interface withapplication circuitry 805/905 (see FIGS. 8 and 9 ) for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 may handle various radiocontrol functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the basebandcircuitry 1010 may include one or more single or multi-core processors.For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G basebandprocessor 1004A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 1004B, a 5G/NR basebandprocessor 1004C, or some other baseband processor(s) 1004D for otherexisting generations, generations in development or to be developed inthe future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments,some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may beincluded in modules stored in the memory 1004G and executed via aCentral Processing Unit (CPU) 1004E. In other embodiments, some or allof the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may be provided ashardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with theappropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memorycells. In various embodiments, the memory 1004G may store program codeof a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 1004E (or otherbaseband processor), is to cause the CPU 1004E (or other basebandprocessor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 1010, scheduletasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded(OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®,Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®,ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided byQualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any othersuitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s)(DSP) 1004F. The audio DSP(s) 1004F include elements forcompression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include othersuitable processing elements in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, each of the processors 1004A-1004E includerespective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory1004G. The baseband circuitry 1010 may further include one or moreinterfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, suchas an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to thebaseband circuitry 1010; an application circuitry interface tosend/receive data to/from the application circuitry 805/905 of FIGS. 8-XT); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RFcircuitry 1006 of FIG. 10 ; a wireless hardware connectivity interfaceto send/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements(e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/Bluetooth®Low Energy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a powermanagement interface to send/receive power or control signals to/fromthe PMIC 925.

In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above describedembodiments), baseband circuitry 1010 comprises one or more digitalbaseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnectsubsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interfacesubsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to adigital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem viaanother interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems mayinclude a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC)structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology,such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSPcircuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing acceleratorcircuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital anddigital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one ormore of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In anaspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 1010 may includeprotocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of controlcircuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digitalbaseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radiofront end modules 1015).

Although not shown by FIG. 10 , in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes individual processing device(s) to operate oneor more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a “multi-protocolbaseband processor” or “protocol processing circuitry”) and individualprocessing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In theseembodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radiocontrol functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processingcircuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of oneor more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, theprotocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 1010 and/or RFcircuitry 1006 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some othersuitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, theprotocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC,and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processingcircuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the basebandcircuitry 1010 and/or RF circuitry 1006 are part of a Wi-Ficommunication system. In the second example, the protocol processingcircuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC)functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or morememory structures (e.g., 1004G) to store program code and data foroperating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processingcores to execute the program code and perform various operations usingthe data. The baseband circuitry 1010 may also support radiocommunications for more than one wireless protocol.

The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 1010 discussedherein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrateincluding one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged ICsoldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing twoor more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry1010 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposedon a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of theconstituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 and RF circuitry1006 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on achip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or allof the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 may beimplemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with andRF circuitry 1006 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 1006). In yetanother example, some or all of the constituent components of thebaseband circuitry 1010 and the application circuitry 805/905 may beimplemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board(e.g., a “multi-chip package”).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may supportcommunication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodimentsin which the baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to support radiocommunications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to asmulti-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include switches,filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with thewireless network. RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path,which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from theFEM circuitry 1008 and provide baseband signals to the basebandcircuitry 1010. RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signalpath, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signalsprovided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and provide RF output signals tothe FEM circuitry 1008 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006may include mixer circuitry 1006 a, amplifier circuitry 1006 b andfilter circuitry 1006 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal pathof the RF circuitry 1006 may include filter circuitry 1006 c and mixercircuitry 1006 a. RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizercircuitry 1006 d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the transmit signalpath. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receivesignal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received fromthe FEM circuitry 1008 based on the synthesized frequency provided bysynthesizer circuitry 1006 d. The amplifier circuitry 1006 b may beconfigured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filtercircuitry 1006 c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter(BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-convertedsignals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals maybe provided to the baseband circuitry 1010 for further processing. Insome embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequencybaseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In someembodiments, mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path maycomprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signalpath may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1008. The basebandsignals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and may befiltered by filter circuitry 1006 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path mayinclude two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path may include two or moremixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley imagerejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thereceive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmitsignal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and directupconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thetransmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 1006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry1010 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 1006.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 1006 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the RFcircuitry 1006 based on a frequency input and a divider control input.In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1010 orthe application circuitry 805/905 depending on the desired outputfrequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may bedetermined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by theapplication circuitry 805/905.

Synthesizer circuitry 1006 d of the RF circuitry 1006 may include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path, which may includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antennaarray 1011, amplify the received signals and provide the amplifiedversions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1006 for furtherprocessing. FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmit signal path,which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals fortransmission provided by the RF circuitry 1006 for transmission by oneor more of antenna elements of antenna array 1011. In variousembodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signalpaths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 1006, solely in the FEMcircuitry 1008, or in both the RF circuitry 1006 and the FEM circuitry1008.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a TX/RX switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include anLNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1006). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1006), andone or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmissionby one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1011.

The antenna array 1011 comprises one or more antenna elements, each ofwhich is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves totravel through the air and to convert received radio waves intoelectrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided bythe baseband circuitry 1010 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g.,modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via theantenna elements of the antenna array 1011 including one or more antennaelements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional,direction, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formedin a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. Theantenna array 1011 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennasthat are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuitboards. The antenna array 1011 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil(e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled withthe RF circuitry 1006 and/or FEM circuitry 1008 using metal transmissionlines or the like.

Processors of the application circuitry 805/905 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 1010, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 805/905 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received fromthese layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP andUDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer,described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 maycomprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described infurther detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHYlayer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 11 shows a diagrammaticrepresentation of hardware resources 1100 including one or moreprocessors (or processor cores) 1110, one or more memory/storage devices1120, and one or more communication resources 1130, each of which may becommunicatively coupled via a bus 1140. For embodiments where nodevirtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1102 may beexecuted to provide an execution environment for one or more networkslices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1100.

The processors 1110 may include, for example, a processor 1112 and aprocessor 1114. The processor(s) 1110 may be, for example, a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC)processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, agraphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, anASIC, an FPGA, a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC), anotherprocessor (including those discussed herein), or any suitablecombination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1120 may include main memory, disk storage,or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1120 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1130 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 1104 or one or more databases 1106 via anetwork 1108. For example, the communication resources 1130 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellularcommunication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® LowEnergy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communicationcomponents.

Instructions 1150 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 1110 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. The instructions 1150 may reside, completely orpartially, within at least one of the processors 1110 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1120, or anysuitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of theinstructions 1150 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1100 fromany combination of the peripheral devices 1104 or the databases 1106.Accordingly, the memory of processors 1110, the memory/storage devices1120, the peripheral devices 1104, and the databases 1106 are examplesof computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Example Procedures

In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s),chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, ofFIGS. 7-11 , or some other figure herein, may be configured to performone or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, orportions thereof. One such process is depicted in FIG. 12 . For example,the process may include, at 1202, determining a resource block (RB)offset associated with a set of control resources. At 1204, the processmay further include encoding an indication of the RB offset in a systembroadcast information.

Another such process is depicted in FIG. 13 . For example, the processmay include, at 1302, receiving a system broadcast information thatindicates a resource block (RB) offset for a set of control resourcesfor a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). At 1304, the processmay further include determining a frequency position of the set ofcontrol resources based on the RB offset.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth inone or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one ormore operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth inthe example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry asdescribed above in connection with one or more of the preceding figuresmay be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of theexamples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated witha UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above inconnection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configuredto operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forthbelow in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 may include a method, comprising: determining a resource block(RB) offset associated with a set of control resources; and encoding anindication of the RB offset in a system broadcast information.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein a frequency position of the set of control resources isindicated according to a first mode or a second mode.

Example 3 may include the method of example 2 or some other exampleherein, wherein the first mode is to use a combination of a RB offsetsignaling and a frequency gap between an indicated SS/PBCH and areference SS/PBCH frequency for a given frequency range, or the secondmode is to use RB offset signaling.

Example 4 may include the method of examples 1-3 or some other exampleherein, wherein the control resources are associated with a CORESET.

Example 5 may include the method of examples 2-4 or some other exampleherein, wherein a payload of PBCH is used to indicate whether the firstor second mode is used.

Example 6 may include the method of examples 1-5 or some other exampleherein, wherein, in the first mode, the RB offset is indicated by asummation of an offset indication in the PBCH and frequency differencebetween the SS/PBCH block containing the offset indication, andreference SS/PBCH block for the given channel.

Example 7 may include the method of examples 1-5 or some other exampleherein, wherein, in the second mode, the RB offset is indicated by anoffset indication in a PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 field of the PBCH informationpayload.

Example 8 may include the method of examples 1-5 or some other exampleherein, wherein, in the second mode, the RB offset is indicated by anoffset indication in a subset of the bits of repurposedsubCarrierSpacingCommon field of the PBCH information payload.

Example 9 may include the method of examples 1-5 or some other example,wherein the RB offset is indicated by summation of first and secondoffset indications, wherein the first offset indication is provided by asubset of the bits of a subCarrierSpacingCommon field of a PBCHinformation payload and the second offset indication is provided by aPDCCH-ConfigSIB1 field of the PBCH information payload.

Example 10 may include the method of example 9 or some other exampleherein, wherein the second offset indication indicates one or more RBoffset values of {0,1,2,3, 28,29,30,31} and the first offset indicationindicates an RB offset value of {0,4,8,12} or {0, −4, −8, −2}, dependingon whether the second offset indication indicates one or more valuesfrom set {0,1,2,3} or set {28,29,30,31}, respectively.

Example 11 may include the method of examples 1-10 or some other exampleherein, wherein the RB offset is indicated by a summation of the offsetindication provided by PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 field of the PBCH informationpayload, and a frequency difference between the SS/PBCH block containingthe offset indication and reference SS/PBCH block for the given channel.

Example 12 may include the method of examples 1-11 or some other exampleherein, further comprising generating a signal in the PBCH informationpayload to indicate a RB offset definition to use.

Example 13 may include the method of examples 12 or some other exampleherein, wherein the RB offset definition includes an original RB offsetand an alternative RB offset.

Example 14 may include the method of examples 1-13 or some other exampleherein, further comprising using the subCarrierSpacingCommon field ofthe PBCH information payload to signal the RB offset definitionselection.

Example 15 may include the method of examples 1-14 or some other exampleherein, wherein a subset of the bits of the subCarrierSpacingCommonfield of the PBCH information payload includes an RB offset value of{0,4,8,12, 16,20,24,28}.

Example 16 may include the method of example 6 or some other exampleherein, wherein the RB offset is indicated by the offset indication inPDCCH-ConfigSIB1 field of the PBCH information payload represents RBoffset values of {0,1,2,3}.

Example 17 may include the method of example 6 or some other exampleherein, wherein the reference SSB is a frequency, among the list of SSBraster entries, that is closest or nearest to the target SSB frequencyand is smaller than or equal to the target SSB frequency, wherein thelist of SSB raster entries is a list of potential reference SSBfrequencies.

Example 18 may include the method of example 6 or some other exampleherein, wherein the reference SSB is a frequency, among the list of SSBraster entries, that is closest or nearest to the target SSB frequencyand is greater than or equal to the target SSB frequency, wherein thelist of SSB raster entries is a list of potential reference SSBfrequencies.

Example 19 may include the method of example 6 or some other exampleherein, wherein the reference SSB is determined based on a first schemein which the reference SSB corresponds to a frequency among the list ofSSB raster entries that is closest or nearest to the target SSBfrequency and is smaller than or equal to the target SSB frequency, or asecond scheme in which the reference SSB corresponds to a frequencyamong the list of SSB raster entries that is closest or nearest to thetarget SSB frequency and is greater than or equal to the target SSBfrequency, wherein the list of SSB raster entries is a list of potentialreference SSB frequencies.

Example 20 may include the system and method of example 19 or some otherexample herein, wherein a reference SSB calculation method among thefirst scheme or the second scheme is determined by gNB assistanceinformation.

Example 21 may include the method of examples 20 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gNB assistance information is indicated as part ofmeasurement configuration for CGI reporting.

Example 22 may include the method of examples 20 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gNB assistance information is indicated as part ofMIB (payload of PBCH).

Example 23 may include the method of example 22 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gNB assistance information is indicated implicitlywith PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 information element.

Example 24 may include the method of example 22 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gNB assistance information that indicate the choiceof which method to use the compute the reference SSB is determined basedon set of indices of the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 that indicate the bandwidth,number of OFDM symbols for control channel, and offset between CORESET#0 and SSB.

Example 25 may include the method of examples 1-24, or some otherexamples herein, wherein the method is performed by an access node(e.g., a gNB) or a portion thereof.

Example 26 may include a method, comprising: receiving a systembroadcast information that indicates a resource block (RB) offset for aset of control resources for a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH); and determining a frequency position of the set of controlresources based on the RB offset.

Example 27 may include the method of example 26, or some other exampleherein, wherein to determine the frequency position of the set ofcontrol resources is to determine the frequency position of the set ofcontrol resources based on a first mode or a second mode.

Example 28 may include the method of example 27, or some other exampleherein, further comprising determining whether to use the first mode orthe second mode based on a payload of a PBCH.

Example 29 may include the method of example 26-28, or some otherexample herein, wherein the method is performed by a UE or a portionthereof.

Example 30 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-29, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 31 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-29, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 32 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-29, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 33 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-29, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 34 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-29, or portions thereof.

Example 35 may include a signal as described in or related to any ofexamples 1-29, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 36 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol dataunit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples1-29, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in thepresent disclosure.

Example 37 may include a signal encoded with data as described in orrelated to any of examples 1-29, or portions or parts thereof, orotherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example 38 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame,segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or relatedto any of examples 1-29, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwisedescribed in the present disclosure.

Example 39 may include an electromagnetic signal carryingcomputer-readable instructions, wherein execution of thecomputer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause theone or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process asdescribed in or related to any of examples 1-29, or portions thereof.

Example 40 may include a computer program comprising instructions,wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause theprocessing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process asdescribed in or related to any of examples 1-29, or portions thereof.

Example 41 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown anddescribed herein.

Example 42 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 43 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 44 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any otherexample (or combination of examples), unless explicitly statedotherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementationsprovides illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise formdisclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms anddefinitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussedherein.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includeshardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, aprocessor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared,dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC),a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array(FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), ahigh-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC),digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to providethe described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry mayexecute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at leastsome of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also referto a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination ofcircuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the programcode used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In theseembodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code maybe referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carryingout a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording,storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term “processorcircuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or morebaseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), asingle-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, aquad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing orotherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as programcode, software modules, and/or functional processes. The terms“application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be consideredsynonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between twoor more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may referto one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces,peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or thelike.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device withradio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user ofnetwork resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment”or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as,client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobileunit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station,access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurableradio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, theterm “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wireddevice or any computing device including a wireless communicationsinterface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical orvirtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired orwireless communication network services. The term “network element” maybe considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer,networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch,hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway,server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any typeinterconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or componentsthereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” mayrefer to various components of a computer that are communicativelycoupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or“system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiplecomputing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another andconfigured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used hereinrefers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g.,software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide aspecific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machineimage to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizesor emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide aspecific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtualdevice, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment,and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, suchas computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPUtime, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardwaretime or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports ornetwork sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage,storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or thelike. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/ornetwork resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A“virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or networkresources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application,device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communicationresource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computerdevices/systems via a communications network. The term “systemresources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services,and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources maybe considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects orservices, accessible through a server where such system resources resideon a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium,either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or adata stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalentto “communications channel,” “data communications channel,”“transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,”“data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequencycarrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or mediumthrough which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” asused herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT forthe purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used hereinrefers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivativesthereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another,may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other butstill cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one ormore other elements are coupled or connected between the elements thatare said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” maymean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another.The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elementsmay be in contact with one another by a means of communication includingthrough a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wirelesscommunication channel or ink, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containingone or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of aninformation element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configurationconfigured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.

The term a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on theprimary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initialconnection establishment procedure or initiates the connectionre-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UEperforms random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Syncprocedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radioresources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cellscomprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UEconfigured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cellcomprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cellscomprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell ofthe SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers tothe Pcell.

The invention claimed is:
 1. One or more non-transitory,computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon,that when executed cause a next generation Node B (gNB) to: determine aresource block (RB) offset associated with a set of control resources;and encode an indication of the RB offset in a system broadcastinformation, wherein the RB offset is to indicate a frequency positionof the set of control resources according to a first mode or a secondmode.
 2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the first mode is touse a combination of a RB offset signaling and a frequency gap betweenan indicated synchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel(PBCH) and a reference SS/PBCH frequency for a given frequency range, orthe second mode is to use the RB offset signaling.
 3. The one or moreNTCRM of claim 1, wherein a payload of physical broadcast channel (PBCH)is used to indicate whether the first or second mode is used.
 4. The oneor more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein, in the first mode, the RB offset isindicated by a summation of an offset indication in a physical broadcastchannel (PBCH) and a frequency difference between a synchronizationsignal (SS)/PBCH block containing the offset indication, and a referenceSS/PBCH block for a given channel.
 5. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1,wherein, in the second mode, the RB offset is indicated by an offsetindication in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) systembroadcast information (PDCCH-ConfigSIB1) field of a physical broadcastchannel (PBCH) information payload.
 6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1,wherein, in the second mode, the RB offset is indicated by an offsetindication in a subset of bits of a subCarrierSpacingCommon field of aphysical broadcast channel (PBCH) information payload.